Malaka Finco
Texas Christian University, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Amputation rates are expected to double by 2050. Bionic and robotic prostheses, artificial limbs with motors and sensors, have drawn heavy research funding and media attention.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Public Health & Epidemiology
Biomedical Engineering
- Topics
bioethics
prosthetics
bionic prostheses
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Feb 2027
What they work on
- Identify bioethical concerns about bionic and robotic prostheses among people with upper- or lower-limb loss and limb difference, clinicians and policy makers through semi-structured interviews based on the Johns Hopkins learning-health-system ethics framework.
- Determine the most prevalent and highest-priority concerns, such as device access, follow-up care, research participation and data monitoring, using descriptive statistics and systematic thematic analysis.
- Produce a brief decision-support document summarizing these concerns to help researchers, manufacturers and funders improve prosthesis development and clinical translation.
More about the research
Yet many devices struggle to reach patients. Ethical problems are part of the reason. Developers may not build in user needs and feedback. Insurance may not pay for advanced devices. Access to research studies and devices can be unequal. These devices can also collect growing amounts of user data. Higher costs and new technology may make these issues worse for robotic devices. No studies have yet reported such bioethical concerns from the people most affected.
Why it matters
Advanced prostheses help only if people can obtain, afford and use them. By documenting the ethical concerns of prosthesis users, clinicians and policy makers, this work could guide researchers, manufacturers and funders toward devices that meet user needs. It could also inform policy on reimbursement and access. This may reduce wasted research spending and improve quality of life for people with limb loss or limb difference.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Ilene Hollin
Temple University, PA·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Describe quality-of-life priorities and how they shape decisions among patients and caregivers at each phase of lung transplant, and among clinicians, using semi-structured interviews.
Jason Wiese
University of Utah, UT·Computer Science·Early-career
Document how patients, visitors, and hospital employees from physicians to custodial staff currently use rehabilitation hospital rooms already equipped with smart home technology, through observations, interviews, and analysis of device log data.
Jeremy Brown
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biomedical Engineering·Early-career
Speed up how robotic-surgery trainees learn to judge tissue forces by sight, by giving them titrated extra haptic feedback of tool–tissue forces and contact vibrations in user studies.
The school
Texas Christian University: 2 labs on PI Pages, $28M a year on research, 41 research doctorates a year.
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